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Biff Poggi talks Jim Harbaugh, Michigan and implementing 'the same culture' at Charlotte

clayton-sayfieby:Clayton Sayfie•08/10/23•

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(David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

Michigan Wolverines football lost an underrated piece to its staff this offseason, when associate head coach Biff Poggi departed to become the head man for the Charlotte 49ers. A former hedge fund manager and high school football coach, Poggi was Harbaugh’s right-hand man from 2021-22, after a stint with the Wolverines in 2016. He was a mentor to the coaches and players, and dished advice to Harbaugh on the regular.

“He’s kind of like the consigliere. He’s really the only guy that is willing to hash it out with [Harbaugh],” former Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald told The Athletic last fall.”

While there were many different factors — “a thousand little things,” per Harbaugh — that played into Michigan’s success the last two seasons, winning the Big Ten and appearing in the CFP each year, Poggi was a part of it. Appearing on On3’s Andy Staples Show, Poggi discussed his role in assisting Michigan’s head coach.

“First of all, Jim is a very unique person,” Poggi said. “Jim is really intelligent. Jim happens to be a football coach. He loves football. But Jim could be anything, right? He could be a physician, he could run a hedge fund. He’s really smart. And it’s a very rare characteristic to have someone who says to you, ‘I want you to tell me what you perceive to be the truth.’ So Jim was open to it.

“The things that we talked about — I don’t want to to divulge those because they’re very personal — but he took my advice. Not all the time, but a lot of the time. And that just made us, everybody in the building, that made me better, made him better, made our assistants better, made our players. I think that’s a very important person to have on your staff.”

Poggi revealed Harbaugh didn’t want those in the Michigan building to call him “Coach” as if he’s above everyone else.

“What happens in college football buildings is the coach, the head coach, is like the king,” Poggi said. “He’s like Charles III. He walks around and everybody genuflects … and they don’t even call them by their name. They call him coach. And everybody in the building says, ‘Well, Coach said this.’ Well, what Coach? Well, it’s always the head coach. So Jim was not like that. I don’t believe in running it that way.”

“We had a really good culture there at Michigan, and we’re putting the same culture here at Charlotte.”

Poggi is attempting to completely transform the Charlotte program. He brought in 52 new players, including 28 transfers. Twenty four of his newcomers played for him at Baltimore St. Frances Academy, including former Michigan linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green and former U-M EDGE Eyabi Okie-Anoma. Two other former Wolverines — safety Damani Dent and defensive lineman Julius Welschof — are also on the 49ers’ roster.

Poggi said his method for finding staff members and players was simple. He was “looking for good men and good kids,” he said.

“We want to find that first, and then we’ll figure out who’s a good player and that kind of stuff.”

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